this trick is about circumventing the chipcard in fax machines, which keeps you from simply scrolling back your inkfilm for reuse.

works for Philips magic 3 and "magic 5" types, possibly even more PHILIPS series.

the trick is reproducible. The fax m/c may complain at intervals about missing inkfilm, but this short sequence of key presses allows you to stay on top of it. Appearantly the inkfilm counter will still count down, but as soon as you get the red flashing light, just reset "CARD TEST 1" to "CARD TEST 0" and you will be fine. You may have to run through the sequence every 2 months or so - no big deal.

those fax machines come with a plug'n'print card (chipcard) such as PFA331 type chipcard/inkfilm combination.

that (unhacked) plug-n-print card keeps you from reeling back the inkfilm to reuse it. inkfilm can be printed 2-5 times over roundabout.

how to hack the fax and stop the chipcard harassing you when you don't feel like to purchase a new inkfilm for $40 or ¤uros: I publish in this very forum because there is no proper "fax hack forum" yet - afaik.

press and hold START button 4 sec. until the beep.
press START/STOP 4 times or more to unlock MENU 97 (note the black square now in display)

now MENU 97 can be entered, which was locked before that.

in submenu MENU 97 (press MENU / OK button) find the entry "CARD TEST 1" or similar in TEST submenu and set the value to zero by pressing OK. this disables the chipcard verification process. note also, the LCD-icon for inkfilm-reserve-level will fill up to 100%, even if the chipcard is removed already at this moment

press OK STOP to exit menu.

open case, remove chipcard.

power off , power on the fax machine.

now you have the display of a NEW inkfilm. reuse the spent inkfilm until you cant read the printouts anymore.

I believe "USER MODE" gets you back in std mode. Its hard to tell what the other stuff in the menu means, beside BEEPER TEST and so forth.

after satellite TV tuners, iPhones asf. now also FAX MACHINES get hacked.

inkfilm for thermo transfer is not expensive. But those " plug'n'print " chipcard, which limit the printout to 140 pages before a customer has to purchase another inkfilm at 40 EURO, while they can be purchased at 3 EURO in asia (excluding the chipcard) , are fast to get rid of.

in the hidden service menu, anyone can easily disable the chipcard.

Now you can unwind the inkfilm to the main spool and reuse it. Or buy inkfilm without the chipcard. Those Philips magic 3 faxes will become hits at ebay.

The creepy thing is: some customers were successful in reeling back just enough inkfilm to print out their lates 3 pages of spamfax with the chipcard not causing trouble. Whoever starts unwinding all inkfilm, will see the error message on display : "inkfilm empty". unless you are a power user, of course.